(2nd Place) Silent seduction: Variable use of sound during courtship among lebinthine crickets

Field crickets (Gryllidae) are famous for their acoustic advertisement signals. Male crickets produce loud, pure-tone calling songs to attract females, then switch to quieter courtship songs once a female has approached. Although these behaviors are typical across most of Gryllidae, the members of one gryllid clade have evolved a drastically different strategy. Males in the tribe Lebinthini produce high-frequency songs that elicit a vibrational reply in a listening female. A pair will signal back and forth while the male searches his surroundings for the stationary female. This multimodal duet is unique to the Lebinthini and is a significant departure from the well-studied behaviors of other crickets. Here, we investigate whether courtship behavior has also changed in this clade. We found that courtship behaviors vary widely across species, even within genera. Most notably, some species are completely silent during courtship. Males of these species tremulate or wave their antennae in front of the female, suggesting a reliance on signals in other sensory modalities. These observations suggest that large evolutionary shifts in one signaling context can allow for evolution in other types of signals.